Banjo-Pilot

Banjo-Pilot is known for having one of the longest development phases of any Game Boy Advance game. Originally envisioned as a handheld successor to Diddy Kong Racing, various development issues and an IP change resulted in the game falling years behind schedule, to the point that it wasn't released until the GBA was on its way out.

While the final result is generally regarded as a decent Mario Kart clone, it ended up being both the worst-selling Banjo-Kazooie game, only selling about 100,000 copies worldwide, and the last time that Banjo and Kazooie would appear on a Nintendo console... at least until their welcomed return in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, 14½ years later. We shed tears for both.

Sub-Pages#

Prototype Info Prerelease Info

Diddy Kong Pilot Leftovers#

As Banjo-Pilot was initially developed as Diddy Kong Pilot, most of the music is based on the Donkey Kong Country soundtrack; according to a former Rare developer, all of Rare's composers were preoccupied with Xbox 360 projects during the five-month conversion process and were unable to replace it.

Some music tracks were left unused when Diddy Kong Pilot became Banjo-Pilot, likely because the team didn't know where the tracks would go.

Early Title Theme

Early Menu Theme

Cranky Kong Theme

Error Messages#

As with Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge, there is dev text for all sorts of sound engine errors. The text begins at 2F04 and ends at 39BB in the U.S. version.

 AUDIO ERROR, freq of sample unusually high. (>3 times normal)
 AUDIO ERROR, pitch frequency too low
 AUDIO ERROR, pitch frequency too high
 AUDIO ERROR, adsr_acts table exceeded
 AUDIO ERROR, midi_command table exceeded
 AUDIO ERROR, midi delta time too big
 AUDIO ERROR, midi delta time of 4 bytes unsupported
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 0.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 1.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 3.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 4.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 5.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 6.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 7.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 8.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 9.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 10.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 11.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 12.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 13.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 14.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 15.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, not enough space to put audio RAM code
 AUDIO ERROR, more than 16 tracks in song 
 AUDIO ERROR, tune num > max tunes available
 AUDIO ERROR, MIDI note on command before MIDI prog chng command
 AUDIO ERROR, requested playback freq exceeds max freq
 AUDIO ERROR, incorrect note mapping for rhythm_set
 AUDIO ERROR, incorrect note mapping for keysplit
 AUDIO ERROR, invalid fx number
 AUDIO ERROR, invalid tune number

Unused Text#

REVERSE CONTROLS

Unused option text.

NOT USED 1
NOT USED 2
NOT USED 3
NOT USED 4

More unused text.

Oddities#

Expresso the Ostrich#

Expresso the Ostrich, one of the Animal Buddies from Donkey Kong Country, appears in Jinxy's Dunes. This was likely an oversight, as all the Donkey Kong characters that Rare created during the 1990s are property of Nintendo.

References#